NEPAL!!!

Working with MCC in Bangladesh doesn't have a lot of the extravagent perks you'd get with a lot of international organizations (that darn adherence to MCC value of simplicity of lifestyle) but a staff retreat in Nepal is certainly a treat! I arrived on Tuesday afternoon with a few extra days to visit HIV projects of MCC Nepal. My schedule had to be changed due to some political disruption and fuel crisis, but I was still able to visit a few sites...one with an interesting van ride up a steep mountain (hill in these parts, but to me, a mountain!) to see a very well organized peer educator program in what I would consider the middle of nowhere! Kids climb mountains for 2 or 3 hours to get to school, and how they bring in food and such is a mystery to me. It gave me good inspiration for MCC Bangladesh's newly emerging peer education program! Thursday night I had dinner with a colleague I'd worked with in Zambia and his wife which was really a nice treat (ate a massive, juicy steak...num!). With the change in program I ended up with a day to explore Kathmandu yesterday, which was interesting. I went to an ancient square of religious monuments, hit the local shops, ate organic veggie full lunch, and then visited Boudha...a place of Tibetan pilgrimage....all very interesting. Now I'm in Phokara and our retreat will begin shortly. I'm hoping to arrange a day or two of trekking before leave but won't have much time. Photos and more tales shortly!